So I periodically get an itch to learn some homesteading skills, and the turn has come to cheese.
After an initial look, it seems hard to do in my apartment, especially fitting a good cheese press, and a climate controlled storage.
Is it feasible to make cheese from an apartment? Do you know of any resources for suitable adaptations or other handy tips? Have you tried yourself? What worked well and what is better avoided altogether?
New cheese maker here. I work with the most primitive of setups. No cheese press - just my kitchen board and a pot filled with water on top, with the cheese pressed in the cheesecloth that I tie up with string. I have made fresh cheese and feta cheese, can be done in room temperature and easy to mature in brine in the fridge. But I also get really experimental. Currently I have two pieces of fresh cheese wrapped in an old fuet (spanish sausage) packaging to develop white mold (Geotrichum) - works very well so far and I can’t wait to try it. A friend brought one of her fresh cheeses that was getting a bit icky outside, and I washed it off and wrapped it into mugwort leaves. It’s now delicious.
I’d say that in the last few months I have eaten all sorts of goat cheese experiments done by me or my friend and find that cheese making is ultimately a very forgiving hobby - it’s mostly just about forgetting milk in creative ways.
Haha, love the summary.
What equipment do I need? A couple cheesecloths, a pot and string. Do I need a mold/tray? Would you recommend any other equipment?
I guess a tray is useful for salting it and leave it sitting. Also, a grid. But most steps can somehow be done with the simplest list of tools. I haven’t used anything else, so can’t really recommend anything.
Thanks for the advice, I guess I’m too new to understand what’s needed and what can be improvised yet.
I started making my paneer 14 years ago. The only cheese making gear I had was cheesecloth. I pressed it between two plates. It was misshapen, uneven, and crumbly. But it tasted great, and it made great Indian food.
As time went on I got better at making the paneer, and picked up a cheese mold. Then I built a cheese press, then built a different version of the cheese press, then bought one, and a different one. Now it is dumbbells on top of my mold.
Depending on what cheese you are making you will need different tools. Some cheese are stupid easy (paneer is one that has never failed) others are quite complex.
I use this cheese supply shop for most of my supplies these days. They have recipes as well.
This is the mold I use for my paneer.
I thought about going with the 4lb version, but I think that is over kill.
Great tips, I’ll have a look at the shop as I will need some supplies.
Do I hear you right that you prefer your jury rigged press? How come?
Do I hear you right that you prefer your jury rigged press?
I do.
How come?
Less set up, less clean up, easier to use. I am going to make paneer Thursday. I will try and get some pictures for you while I am making it.
Ooh, looking forward to it!
Start with paneer or ricotta. These cheeses are very similar and are the easiest cheeses to make - you don’t need any specialized ingredients, just milk, salt, and acid (vinegar, lemon juice, etc.).
To press it, I wrap it in cheese cloth, put it in between two cutting boards, and weigh it down with bricks. I just grabbed some $0.50 pavers from the garden centre and wrapped them in aluminum foil.
Fresh mozzarella is the next easiest cheese. You’ll need to buy rennet and some food safe, heat resistant gloves, since you have to work the cheese while it’s hot. I have made fresh mozzarella in a condo / flat and it worked out just fine.
I have also made farmhouse cheddar but never in an apartment. I’d recommend picking up a kit the first time you make anything more complicated than mozzarella. The kit I picked up included everything needed except the milk - rennet, cultures, non-iodized salt, a form, a jar of coating and a brush to apply it.
If you’re making any kind of aged cheese, you will need a setup for keeping it at the right temperature and humidity for at least a few weeks. This might be the most challenging part for apartment cheese because the temp needs to be lower than typical room temperature but higher than refrigerator temperature. I picked up a combo hygrometer / thermometer and set up a cambro box with a sliding lid in my basement. Temp wasn’t a problem because my basement is exactly in the target temperature range year-round. I used damp paper towel and the sliding lid to increase or decrease humidity as needed.
Making the cheese took about 5 hours (don’t do this on a weekday - ask me how I know). You don’t actually need a cheese press to form the cheese, although it’s certainly simpler. I ended up pressing mine by piling bricks, canned tomatoes, and a big pot full of water on top of the form. The pot tipped over some time after midnight because the cheese didn’t settle evenly but fortunately it tipped backward toward the cabinets and didn’t spill all over the floor, so it was straightforward to correct.
Be warned that 1gal / 4L of milk produces a tiny amount of cheese. I think we ended up with 250g of cheddar in the end.
Wow. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.
Sounds like I need a little bit of kit and then to get going, or would you recommend any particular resource to learn with?
Happy to help!
The only thing you need for ricotta or paneer that you may not already have on hand is cheesecloth. I’d recommend starting with that and seeing if you actually enjoy cheesemaking before buying any equipment.
I can’t find the recipe I used online anymore, but it’s basically “heat the milk until just shy of a boil, remove from the heat, pour in lemon juice or vinegar until it starts to curdle, cover it and wait 10 minutes, then drain, wrap, and press”. A strainer lined with cheesecloth is the best way to drain the curd. You can save the whey to make biscuits or something.
Edit: For mozzarella, I used this recipe from Serious Eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-make-fresh-mozzarella-from-scratch-recipe
Assuming you enjoy making cheese, you can search for a local cheesemaking supply store to pick up supplies and equipment or order online from some place like makecheese.ca.
Rennet is available as liquid or tablets. Liquid is easier to work with but tablets last longer.
The kit that I bought from makecheese.ca came in a little box that had everything I needed except milk and a thermometer. It included step by step instructions.
If you want to YOLO it and jump right in without using a kit (or if you outgrow cheesemaking by kit), I’d recommend a copy of Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianaclis Caldwell.
Have fun!
Yes, it is possible to make some cheeses in an apartment.When I got into it 15 years ago, it was just my family and internet instructions. The mozarella and ricotta turned out fine. More complex, not really. Start with these.
I only make paneer, Finnish juustoleipää, and the occasional mozzarella. All of which are very quick cheeses, and they require no climate control.
For my paneer I gave up on my fancy cheese press and put weights on top of the molds, I can fit two molds in a baking pan (to catch the whey) on my counter.
I know the most common climate control used in novice cheese making is a wine fridge.
wine fridge
I find this out mere days after seeing a wine fridge sitting by the curb and thinking “ah what would I use a wine fridge for”
For making cheese!! Argh if only I knew
Chances are it was broken I guess, and it wouldve needed a thorough sanitizing which is never fun
Thank you for excellent tips, I guess I have to figure out what to cook with paneer next ;)
The two dishes I make the most with it are shahi paneer (I almost always add a cup or three of frozen peas) and buffalo ranch paneer wraps.. The first dish I made with paneer though was saag paneer.
Sounds delicious, thank you!
I used to make Quark regularly at home, which is a soft spreadable cheese that goes really well with a jam on crackers or a bagel. It’s quite easy to make, and doesn’t require a press, just a cheese cloth that you twist to squeeze the whey out before eating, so should be pretty perfect for making in an apartment.
There’s a lot of different ways to make it, but the easiest/simplest recipes are the ones that just call for milk and buttermilk, like this one.
I have been wanting to try making quark. Will check out that recipe.
Wow, quark is very popular in strength training circles, would be fun to make my own!
Thank you for the recipe recommendation!
I haven’t done it but I know there a few different easy cheese to make. Mozzarella and cottage cheese are supposed to be simple and don’t require any special temperature control. Ricotta can me made in a few hours as well
Some cheeses are a lot easier than others. Add acid and simmer the milk should result in it separating and then you can filter out the whey with cheesecloth. Now you have cheese!
If you press it you can remove more of the liquid but you can do a fair bit by hand for soft cheeses.
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